See You
by Kitten Kisses
Summary: [AAML] Ash has died, and now Misty attends the reading of his will. The PokémonMaster left her one very special thing. What could it be? [AshMisty][Oneshot]


**See You**  
**By: Kitten Kisses (Manna)**

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"_I'll be seein' you, in all the old, familiar places…  
That this heart of mine embraces…  
All day through…  
I'll be seein' you, in every lovely summer's day…  
In everything that's light and gay,  
I'll always think of you that way…  
I'll be lookin' at the moon, but I'll be seein'…  
You…"_

-Jimmy Durante, "I'll Be Seeing You"

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It wasn't as if she hadn't thought about it before, because, in all honesty, she had. She wasn't exactly cynical, but, at thirty years of age, she sometimes felt like she could, should she choose to be.

Sitting in this room, the lights on the ceiling bouncing off of the dreary walls, and the cold air blasting from the air conditioning unit in the window, she felt a little scared. She knew why she was there… why they _all_ were there. The sturdy oak table in the middle of the room with familiar and unfamiliar faces alike peering anxiously down to the end, at one man.

He wasn't anything special, really. His hair was graying, and his eyes were light. But the folder he had his left hand lying on was something that they all had an interest in.

All eyes were on this folder… everyone in the room wanted to know the contents. Some wanted to know out of greed- after all, the man had been rather well to do- but others wanted to know on a personal level. Had he left them anything special?

She could see his mother, Delia, sitting across the table from her, and her heart ached more for the older woman then it did for herself. A part of her wanted to jump over the table and give her a hug, but she hardly knew the woman anymore, and she would just feel weird.

She'd lost touch with so many people… She was Gym Leader Misty, now, of the Cerulean City Gym, and she made a decent living. Her job was something she'd worked long and hard for, and it was something that she loved doing very much… but now, knowing _he_ was gone for good… It was hard to grasp the fact that she's spent her life going after a dream in the sky, instead of one on the ground.

Every time he had come to see her, she'd say that she had a lifetime to settle down, but she hadn't really thought that she would only have a few simple years.

She wished she had used them. She'd known that it _could_ happen, but not a bone in her body thought that it actually would.

If she closed her eyes, she could still see that stupid look on his 10-year-old face the first day she'd met him. And in less than twenty years, he'd gone from that silly kid, to a handsome young man, buried six feet in the ground of Pallet Town's cemetery.

"Misty?" a voice shook her out of her reverie. "Are you okay, sweetie? He's talking to you." It was Mrs. Ketchum, and she immediately felt ashamed.

"I was reminiscing," she said. "I'm sorry, please continue."

"Ms. Waterflower," the man continued, not really offended by her lack of attention. "The deceased left you…" his hand moved across the page painfully slow as his eyes tried to find what it was the dearly departed had left for his longtime friend. "His Pikachu."

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"He's not doing so well these days, Misty…" Delia sighed as she unlocked the door to her small, though ever-immaculate house. "He's about as old as a pokémon can get. But he's still hanging in there."

"Did you know?" she asked the older woman. "That he was going to give me Pikachu?"

Running a hand through her slightly graying hair, the mother of her friend sighed. "He died so suddenly," she said. "I never would have known. But sometimes, he would talk about it. You know… I guess to have things in order, _just in case_."

Once inside the house, Misty noticed the most despondent looking creature she'd ever seen before in her entire life. Just inside the front hall sat Pikachu, his fur rough with age, and his eyes drooping with depression. "Pika?" he asked sadly, his voice tired.

She felt her heart break, then. Pokémon were so devoted… They seemed to have eyes for only one person, ever, and even though they made friends with others of the Pokémon world, that one special person who had been there for a lifetime to them, was what really mattered to them.

She wasn't sure if she should say something to the little guy, so she sidestepped him and followed Delia down the hall. "He also left you a letter," she heard the other woman say. "I didn't have it mentioned, because I figured it didn't matter."

After a few mere seconds of walking, they had reached Ash's old bedroom. It was almost like a storage space, and it probably had been from the moment he moved out. Misty was sure that Delia didn't mind, seeing as how Ash was her only family left. A manila envelope was sitting on a box that was right by the door, and she noticed her name written on the front in scratchy handwriting.

She slowly opened the flap and pulled the piece of paper out, her eyes focusing in on the writing that was right in front of her.

_Hey Misty,_

_I thought about starting this out with a "Hey Psycho", or something, because I figured that if I was dead, you sure as heck couldn't kill me for calling you names. But then I decided that you might not want to hear that from me if I was dead, and if you're reading this, I am. _

_As I'm writing this, I don't know how I'll die. But I do know that we've known each other for practically forever, and that you're the only one that knows Pikachu as well as I do. By now you know that I've left him in your care. I'd say "Take good care of him," but I know you will. So… Take care of yourself._

_Love,_

_Ash_

_PS. A long time ago, you gave me something that meant a lot to me. Hold onto it until you see me again._

She felt around inside the envelope as her gaze wandered downward, to where Pikachu had followed her and was gazing at her forlornly, his little arms hugging her right leg.

Her fingers came in contact with a soft material, and she tugged on it gently to free it from its manila prison. As it came free, she gave a soft gasp as a particular memory came back to her.

"I don't believe it could be just a coincidence that I met you, out of all people. I think that we were meant to meet and become friends."

Her eyes started to water as she remembered hearing him say that, and she pressed the old, rather worn pink-and-yellow handkerchief to the side of her face.

She would never forget someone who impacted her life so much… who had given life everything he had, and who had been such a good person, inside and out. Every time she turned around, she'd see something that reminded her of him… that would make her remember a particular memory, or a certain thing he'd said.

She never _wanted_ to forget.

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**Author Notes:**

The name of this fic was calling to me from my big file of fic ideas. I really love the song "I'll Be Seeing You" (from "The Notebook"). It's one of those songs you can listen to over and over, and never get tired of, because it's so beautiful. I prefer the Jimmy Durante version, myself.

Anyway, let me know what you thought. It wasn't a happily-ever-after, but rarely in life does that ever happen.

Please, feel free to critique on characterization especially, and grammar. I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you for reading!


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